When my Dad got us started in R/C as kids, the club we joined was exclusively for gliders, and we flew Single Channel slope soarers for many years, well into the propo era. The S/C gliders at the time were Veron Impalas, John Kay's 'Moonbeam 2', 'Wee Willy' and 'Wizard of Oz' etc all bang-bang rudder only. I've many happy memories of S/C sloping at Callow Bank like me & my mate cycling 24 miles from Aston to Callow with fus and tx in a duffle-bag and wings strapped to our backs... we'd be about 12 or 13 and back then it was quite acceptable for kids to go off on their own!
I also remember in the late 1960s a chap called Jack Rose who flew an SE5A purpose made as a S/C slope soarer, and a similar Catalina glider, long before PSS was invented. Jack was always immaculately dressed in suit and tie; his models were similarly immaculate.
After a long search I finally got an old magazine I'd been wanting. Imagine my surprise when the first photo I noticed was Jack Rose with his Catalina glider (see attached pic)

I can still picture Jack laying on his back on the ridge top, S/C tx on his belly, clicking away, one-for-right, two-for-left and the model a tiny, tiny dot way up in the stratosphere. He'd fly for a couple of hours or more in that horizontal pose, often eating his sandwiches mid flight!
Cheers
Phil

I can still picture Jack laying on his back on the ridge top, S/C tx on his belly, clicking away, one-for-right, two-for-left and the model a tiny, tiny dot way up in the stratosphere. He'd fly for a couple of hours or more in that horizontal pose, often eating his sandwiches mid flight!
Cheers
Phil

Thanks Phil! Nice to learn about R/C Soaring History from across the puddle (used to be a pond but with the move from sailing ships to jumbo jets, well, it's just a puddle now! )

I too have enjoyed lying on my back, flip flops under my head, Tx at my side, reaching over once in a while telling my sailplane to come back here.

Dave Thornberg was always making remarks about "engineers" who spent their time calculating tail volume coefficients and other aerodynamic coefficients and seemed to prefer styling to engineering as in his Bird of Time. I calculated all the coefficients for the Bird of Time and they all fell right in the middle of all the Olympic, Paragon, Viking, and all the best flying models of the era. All the fancy curves did was make calculation of the coefficients difficult.

In 1975, I watched Dave towing a sailplane after dark in the parking lot in front of the Lewis University dorm where we were staying. The sailplane had glow sticks strapped to the wings and the pilot didn't seem to have any problem flying. What amazed me was the way Dave jumped the curbs as he ran across the parking lot.

I won the 1979 LSF Tournament Speed event with an Osprey 900 version that had my own guesstimate of an airfoil that I thought would go fast. It didn't have flaps and was the one that I broke the wing during a practice speed run at my FAI F3B warm up contest after the LSF . That was the year Lee Renaud had his factory pilot crew flying the newly released Sagitta 900. Having beaten his 900 in the LSF speed event, they all came to my F3B for a showdown. It was a riot, I broke mine in practice, Skip Miller broke his Sagitta at base B in an offical run. All I had to fly for the two day event was a set of BOT wings that fit the unbroken Osprey 900 fuse ... I won the overall first place in my F3B and I was told Lee grumbled all the way back to California.

__________________________________________________ ____
Happy 91st Birthday to Harley Michaelis LSF 023. Hats off to Harley for all his fine Sailplane designs.
Just stop and think, Harley was the 23 person to sign up for the LSF Achievement program, what a great contributor to RC Soaring.
__________________________________________________ ____

Files

Happy Birthday Harley and Thank You for all your contributions to R/C Soaring.

I wish I had been in Fort Wayne to see that contest!

I have a copy of the June 1979 issue of MB on the way to me to see if Dave had any more to share with us about sailplane design, stay tuned.

Joe

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ray Hayes

Joe,

I won the 1979 LSF Tournament Speed event with an Osprey 900 version that had my own guesstimate of an airfoil that I thought would go fast. It didn't have flaps and was the one that I broke the wing during a practice speed run at my FAI F3B warm up contest after the LSF . That was the year Lee Renaud had his factory pilot crew flying the newly released Sagitta 900. Having beaten his 900 in the LSF speed event, they all came to my F3B for a showdown. It was a riot, I broke mine in practice, Skip Miller broke his Sagitta at base B in an offical run. All I had to fly for the two day event was a set of BOT wings that fit the unbroken Osprey 900 fuse ... I won the overall first place in my F3B and I was told Lee grumbled all the way back to California.

__________________________________________________ ____
Happy 91st Birthday to Harley Michaelis LSF 023. Hats off to Harley for all his fine Sailplane designs.
Just stop and think, Harley was the 23 person to sign up for the LSF Achievement program, what a great contributor to RC Soaring.
__________________________________________________ ____

I have a copy of the June 1979 issue of MB on the way to me to see if Dave had any more to share with us about sailplane design, stay tuned.

Joe,
As I interpret the file names for each of your Design-Your-Own JPEGs, they appear to have come from the Jan-Feb-Mar-Apr 1979 issues of MB, and you're talking about jumping to the June issue. Is there an installment of the series in the May issue?

Joe,
As I interpret the file names for each of your Design-Your-Own JPEGs, they appear to have come from the Jan-Feb-Mar-Apr 1979 issues of MB, and you're talking about jumping to the June issue. Is there an installment of the series in the May issue?

Great work, keep it up.
Tim

Hey Tim,
In general that is how I am namimg the files, easier to search.
For some things I am using which magazine, the year and the article segment.
In Dave's case he took a time out in March.